Memory Lane
by JadeAshes
Summary: The power goes out one night, and this gets the Titans talking about their pasts. Then they want BB to tell them HIS tale. Includes Africa, a rare disease, and the first tastes of ice cream & oreo cookies. [no pairings] first ever fic!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own a desk, computer, two dogs, and a ton of pens and notebooks. Did you hear anywhere in that plethora "Teen Titans"? Didn't think so.

_Italics_ are thoughts while **_bold italics _**are flashbacks, and there's gonna be a lot of flashbacks.

Enjoy and, pretty please review.

Chapter One: Lights Out

The Titan common room was finally growing quiet after a very eventful day. Raven was curled up on the end of the sofa, while Robin and Cyborg played video games on the opposite end. Starfire and Jinx were wordlessly watching the boys battle, and even Beast Boy was silently staring at the blank wall opposite his seat at the kitchen table. Yes, it was quite relaxing thinking that just that morning they had been chasing bad guys all over town.

Suddenly, the television blacked out and the lights shuddered off. Starfire let out a small scream as Jinx jumped up and Raven gasped. Commotion and pandemonium broke out as everyone rushed around trying to find light switches and flashlights.

"Stop" Raven abruptly shrieked. Everyone froze at her command. The Goth girl used her telekinetic powers to bring out a couple candles and ignited them. She set them around the kitchen table as Cyborg fiddled with the main computer and Robin tried the lights.

"Someone's been meddling with our systems" Cyborg muttered bitterly after a few minutes of fruitless silence. "Not even the back up generator's comin' on."

"Gizmo's not above this" Jinx offered from her seat at the table.

"Neither is Slade" Robin whispered, putting his thumb and pointer finger on his chin.

Everyone started talking about who could have pulled the black-out on them. Beast Boy sighed and turned to look out one of the front windows. And realized immediately what had happened. _Sometimes I think they _want_ the answer to be hard and complex_, he thought as he stared down on the lightless city.

"Hey, guys", but the other teens continued about which villain would have the most reason to take the Tower's electricity. Robin was right in the middle of proving that Slade was behind the scheme. "Hey!" the changeling yelled. "Shut up!" The squabbling ceased instantly.

"Or, maybe, the city's power just went out", Beast said in a mockingly simple tone of voice. "Ever think of that, or was it to simple for you?" He gestured out a window as he spoke.

"Um ya", Robin rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Or it could be that", Cyborg admitted, also highly mortified. But he covered it quickly with: "In that case we're locked in, nothing to do but wait it out." Beast Boy shook his head in disbelief at his friends' stupidity. _Usually, I'm the stupid one_, he muttered to himself.

There was silence all throughout the Tower for some time. Then, suddenly, there could be heard against the windows and roof the light pattering of a drizzle of rain which soon grew into a heavy downpour.

"The power sure picked a day to go out" Jinx whispered crossly, trying to keep warm by rubbing her shoulders. From all around the table came the sullen replies of agreement.

Robin was studying the placemat in front of him when he abruptly raised his head and stared at Cyborg. "Hey, Cy", the cybernetic teen looked over at his spiky-haired friend. "How'd you get to be" he indicated Cyborg's metal parts, "half robot, if you don't mind telling us."

Cyborg was quiet for a few moments, but then he spoke. "When I was a high school sophomore my doctor dad was thinking up new ways to save lives. A few of his colleagues were tinkering with a couple of different chemicals, when there was an explosion. It killed many of the men and—" here Cyborg had to stop and take a deep breath before he could continue. "And my mom", there were sympathetic sighs from the other teens. "I was fatally wounded in the explosion as well so my dad tried a couple of the prototypes on me. One worked."

"That must have been tough, losing your mom that way" Jinx whispered, her own coldness forgotten. "I was raised by my father in an old Indian village." The Titans turned to stare at their pink-haired, witchy friend. She turned her head down to look at her hands on her lap. "I don't remember my mother at all, and my father would never talk about her. He called me a witch when I was younger and I could never understand why until I was twelve, when I learned of my powers."

"I ran away soon after, and jumped the first boat that was heading out." Jinx paused for an instant while Raven got up and served everyone a cup of soda. "It happened to be going to the U.S., where my father came from, so at least I knew the language. I was taken to an orphanage as soon as I step off the gang plank. I ran away from that after three months when I found out about a villain school for gifted teens. Brother Blood accepted me, and you know the rest."

There was again that awkward silence until Robin spoke again. "I remember the orphanage I was taken to after my parents' death."

"I didn't know you lived in an orphanage." Robin nodded.

"My parents were acrobats in a traveling circus", the faint shadow of a smile tickled his lips as he thought. "They were they Great Dickson Duo." Now the very slight smile disappeared to be replaced by a look of sorrow. "I was four when my dad missed the trapeze and fell. Then, when I was eleven, my mom lost her balance on the high-wire and fell."

"The ring master couldn't afford to keep a kid around, so I was taken to an orphanage in the town we were passing through." The team leader looked more thoughtful than he ever had before. "A couple of weeks living in that rat-infested hole, and I thought I was about to go insane. That was when Bruce Wayne came by, and on pure chance he adopted me."

"He taught me about right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. It wasn't until much later that I found out he was one of those good guys." Robin broke in his past description to take a gulp of water. "That was when he started teaching me kung-fou, and letting me come with him when he went out at night. We caught crooks, nabbed felons, and for a while everything seemed perfect."

"Then, a short while after a turned fifteen, we had a bad fight. I left and came to Jump City to fight crime on my own." He glanced around the table at his friends. "But things didn't go as planned, instead I met you guys and we formed the Teen Titans."

"Bruce was Batman, wasn't he?" Raven asked Robin. He nodded at her. "So, he pretty much made you what you are today." Another nod accompanied by a tiny smile was her answer.

"I think my mother was responsible for how I turned out", Raven started after a second. "On Azarath, she was like my mentor. She helped me to control my emotions and taught me most of the spells I know." The silence that greeted her pause prompted the sorceress to continue her story. "The funny thing was she didn't have any powers, she pure human. But she was all I had on Azarath except the monks, and they were more like teachers than family."

"When I was finally told I was destined to destroy the world, I ran far away from Mom and the monks. I didn't really know where I was going and I didn't care at the moment, but I ended up here in Jump City. You guys found me, and I was welcomed without fear for the first time since I had been brought to Azarath." the Goth girl finished in a fuller voice than her usual emotionless one.

"This 'Azarath', it is another planet, no?" Starfire spoke in her customarily strange way.

"Uh, no Star", Raven replied. "It's a dimension."

"Oh, what is the difference?"

"A planet can be reached through a physical type of travel", blank looks greeted this new data. "Spaceships and stuff, but dimensions are like a twin of an existing place."

"Ohhh", was the only acknowledgement.

"How did you grow up Starfire?" Jinx asked the alien princess.

"Well, my sister Blackfire", everyone shuddered in remembrance of the evil alien as Starfire said her name. "She was three glabhorts when I was born. I was favored over her because I had the look of a common, non-royal Tamaranian, whilst she bore the more majestic, physical appearance."

"When I was barely above ten glabhorts it was decided that I was to be the heir to the throne. This news did not improve my fragile relationship with Blackfire, as she was to come of age soon", Starfire told her earth friends sadly. "She grew much more arrogant and conceited in the presence of guests, and soon came to project a spiteful air towards my person."

"It was soon after my fifteenth gorgetanth that my planet entered a precious stage in our war with the galactic slave-traders, the Megutiots. In order to keep Tamarania secure from invasions, my father was forced into a covenant with the foul creatures." The usually cheerful girl's face had fallen to display a look of grief. "It was in this bargaining that I was sold to the Megutiots, in exchange they would let Tamarania alone."

"I was being transported to a marketing planet in a dungeon cell when the ship's navigational systems faltered and the vessel veered too far off course, and it was forced to land on the nearest world." She glanced up at her friends and smiled when she continued. "I was freed by my earth friends who also helped bring the Megutiots to justice. And, the saying of humans, file fastened."

Everyone burst out laughing at Starfire's attempt at American sayings. "I think you mean 'case closed'", Robin corrected her through his bursts of giggling.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm really sorry I left you hanging there. My dad needed to use the computer for some school stuff, so I had to get off right away. But now you get to hear Beast Boy's story! Yay!

Special thanks to **Agent of the Divine One**,** TeenTitans4evr**, and **xXx Princess of Dreams xXx**. Thanks for the encouragement guys, I needed it. Keep reviewing!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, and I never will.

&&&&

Chapter Two

Once the giggling subsided, everyone turned to Beast Boy who had yet to say anything of his past.

"Friend Beast Boy", Starfire spoke, shattering the awkward silence. "Do you not wish to partake in this act of sharing with us?"

"Yah BB, we hardly know anything about your past" Cyborg threw in. "Not even your birthday!"

"That's 'cause my past is something you just don't want to know", Beast Boy replied stubbornly, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest. "Plain and simple."

"C'mon Beast Boy", Jinx wheedled two chairs away from the green changeling. "All the rest of us have opened up. It's your turn to tell us about **your** past."

Everyone began trying to persuade their green friend to talk. Finally, their persistence was rewarded.

Beast Boy leaned forward again, folding his arms on the table. Finally he whispered "Okay, but this'll take a while."

"We've got all night" was the only reply to this softly spoken statement.

Everyone fell into one of the more comfortable silences of that evening as Beast Boy began his tale.

"I was born in a small, African village on December 12. I had blonde hair and blue eyes", Beast Boy said, the words surprising his friends. "My parents were both scientists, their names were Mark and Mary Logan. My mom was a biochemist and my dad was a geneticist. They were in Africa to study the animals, and the difference between human and animal DNA."

"I had a pretty normal childhood, except I grew up petting lions instead of housecats and riding elephants instead of horses." The changing smiled at the memory as he gazed into a candle flame. "I wasn't particularly close to any of the other village kids. Sure, I knew their names, but I liked it better playing in the forest with the animals than spending the day playing games with them. My mom taught me math and science and stuff when she wasn't in the lab, and when she was, I read her and Dad's reports and files along with the encyclopedias I could carry. All-in-all, my life was all right."

Beast Boy's smile faded slowly as he continued. "A couple weeks before my seventh birthday my mom was out sweeping our porch and I was playing close by the jungle's edge. That was when I heard a chattering sound coming from somewhere behind me. My mom had warned me not to wander out of her eyesight, but when I turned around and saw that green monkey, I couldn't help myself but to try to pet it." He was grimacing now.

"I walked towards it slowly, my hand outstretched. I thought it might be a little scared with me so close to it, but I didn't know it would freak out the way it did. It lunged at me before I could react and it bit me on my upper arm." Beast Boy rubbed a spot just below his shoulder blade, as if he had just felt the bite again. He was picturing what had happened while he spoke.

------

**Mary crashed through the underbrush towards the little clearing where the scream had come from. '_Please be alright, please, please,_ _please_', she thought wildly as she run through the last of the brambles. Tears of relief started running down her cheeks when she saw her little boy sitting there.**

**Garfield felt his mother scoop him into her arms. "Honey, what happened?" It was then that she noticed the retreating, green monkey and the blood on her son's arm.**

**"What? A green monkey?" she wondered aloud, the disbelief in her voice audible. Then it dawned on her.**

**"Sakutia" she whispered, her voice weak. Then she started screaming as she ran towards the family's small hut. "Mark! Mark! Come quick! Garfield's been hurt!"**

------

"What's 'Sakutia'?" Cyborg asked when Beast Boy paused for a breath.

"It's a rare disease", the green teen answered. "It's native to the jungles of Africa and no where else. Sakutia is fatal to humans, but not to animals. That's the only reason I survived it." The others around the table waited for more information.

"My parents concocted an antidote that was able to deteriorate the virus. But there was a side-effect to the cure-"

"You turned green", Jinx said.

"No", Beast Boy gave her a small smile. "That was the side-effect of the virus." The witch got a confused look on her face.

"The monkey?"

"Nope. You see, the locals call it 'Green Fever', because your temperature rockets up and your skin gradually turns grass green over a period of ten days, then you die."

"But the result of the antidote gave me the power to turn into any animal. Though I wasn't aware of it until little over a month later, when my mom was in danger of getting bitten by a Black Mamba. She was reaching down to pick a couple of herbs and hadn't realized she had disturbed the nest of the viper. I started wishing I was a mongoose, because the mongoose is a snake's natural enemy. That was when I morphed and the critter's instincts took over from there. I killed the snake." It was at that time he grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I ate it. After I woke up-I had fainted when Mom pointed out that I was a mongoose-I seriously began thinking about going vegetarian." The Titans all cracked up at that one, and was a few minutes until Beast Boy could continue.

"My parents didn't want anyone else to know about my abilities. So I morphed only two times that year. The first time was the mongoose, and the second was a parrot." All around the table, grins came up at Beast Boy's second choice. Only Beast Boy himself wasn't smiling. "I used it to get off the boat that—". Beast Boy paused for an instant, but continued, "That my parents died on."

Beast Boy looked down at his hands, which were fidgeting in his lap. "It was my seventh birthday, and, as a present, they were taking me down river to a lake for a camping trip." Tears started to shimmer in his emerald eyes. "They never made it. The steering gears jammed, and we missed the stream off the river. I got away by turning into a bird, but—", he drew in a shaky breath, "—but they went….over the waterfall."

"I was taken back to the village by some hunters, and a search was sent out. Their bodies were found the next day." Beast Boy had squeezed his eyes shut, but some tears still leaked out. "The chief took me in for awhile, but I couldn't handle it. I couldn't deal living there while they were dead, so I left. I just started flying; I didn't care where I went, just so that I got away from that place. And that's how I ended up in the States."

"When I finally stopped, I realized I wasn't in Africa anymore. White people were everywhere and I couldn't understand the language." Beast Boy wiped away the few tears that had trailed down his cheeks and continued. "I hung out by what I thought was a market, and, by the end of that first afternoon, I had a basic understanding of English."

"My first couple of days taught me you had to be cautious in big places like that. I found out that not all people were honest like my parents." The changeling briefly shook his head, so that his green hair waved a bit. "So I began fighting fire with fire. I became a thief."

&&&&

Shock! Beast Boy? A thief? Outrageous!

Anyone with any information concerning Beast Boy's past, please tell me. I'm begging you!

Also, WANTED: SEVERAL IDEAS FOR STORY!

JadeAshes


	3. Chapter 3

Here's another chapter!

&&&&

Chapter Three:

The Titans stared in shock at the team's shapeshifter.

Finally, Robin voiced what they all must have been thinking. "You were… a thief?" Beast Boy nodded grimly. "Why?" Boy Wonder asked without thought.

"It's not easy being on your own at age seven." Beast Boy shook his head gloomily. "There's no where you can go but the orphanage, and, at the time, I didn't know where places like that were. I found out 'bout dogs an' cats, and learned to turn into them too. So, I hid in the alleyways and dead-end streets that nobody paid any attention to, and came out when I got hungry. But most of the time I was running from the dogcatchers. It was like that for about three months, until the rainy season came."

"I was searching for shelter, ya see. And I stumbled into a part of town I'd never seen before." Beast Boy grimaced slightly. "I saw an old warehouse on the corner. It looked like it might fall down any second, but I was over being picky after living in a dirty city for a while. I started towards it."

------

**Garfield slumped against a wall of a tiny shop. He was cold, and tired. He was starting to think he'd never be out of the rain, when he looked up and spied—what looked to be—an old, abandoned warehouse. _Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! _he prayed gratefully as ran towards it.**

**Garfield slowed down as he approached the squat building, and, as he took a closer look at his sanctuary, stopped all together. There was something wrong with the structure. It didn't look right for some odd reason. He walked over to the storage house and touched it. And the wall jiggled, like jello! Gar jumped away. He'd seen some weird things since he moved to the big place, but this went beyond the beyond!**

**As he stood in the rain, puzzling out what was with the building, he saw the front door slide open and three people and a machine come out. Two had the appearance of guards, and were dressed in strange suits of leather and metal. The third was as big as a gorilla and Gar could just make out the form of an ammunition belt through the gloomy rain; it was slung over the guy's left shoulder. The machine looked like half of a giant gel capsule, and had a skull-like design tattooed on it.**

**Gar became a tabby cat to slink away, but the enlarged gel capsule saw him morph. That was when the green lad saw the warehouse for what it was, a giant metal structure with dishes and eyes covering every inch of it. "Retrieve him!" the machine spoke articulately as Gar turned and ran for it. The guard-guys ran after him.**

**The men were catching up to him quickly as the emerald cat darted down an alley. _Uh oh, dead end_, Garfield thought as he stared up at the brick wall blocking his escape. _A cat can't jump _that_ high._ He reverted back to his human form and started climbing. "There he is!" came a shout from behind him. The young shapeshifter dropped to the ground and returned to running.**

**Suddenly, there was a great explosion. He swiveled around and stared at the rubble pile the eight-foot high wall had become. The leatherettes charged through the dust, both waving dangerous-looking weapons. The boy didn't need a second demonstration of the blasters' power.**

**Gar led the men up dead-ends, down dirty alleys, and around in circles in hope of shaking them off. But they were always a few yards behind him. Then he swerved to the left abruptly, and skidded to a stop right before he collided into a wall thrice the size of the last one. He whirled around rapidly, but one guard grabbed him by his throat and threw him into the cement block wall.**

**"Should we kill 'im, Rex?" the second guard asked the first.**

**"That's what The Brain wanted, Mac" Rex responded, lifting Gar by his neck until the two were eye-level.**

**"Lemme do it!" Mac cried, waving his weapon above his head.**

**"Put that down!" Rex hissed angrily as he knocked his idiot partner on the head. It was just a small, fluid movement but that was all Gar needed. The small boy kicked out at his captor, knocking him down with a surprising amount of strength. He rapidly morphed into a dog, and managed to nip at Rex's ankles before he was forced to let go of the shape. "Arrg!" the man growled as drew back his fist. "You're gonna regret that!"**

**Gar ran for the exit, but was blocked by the laughing Mac. He dodged Rex's muscular arms and jumped on the wall. He managed to scale halfway up it when he felt himself wrenched from the wall and thrown to the ground.**

**He looked up shivering in the rain and spitting gravel from his mouth. The guards encircled him, a buzzing sound coming from their weapons. _Bigger_, Garfield managed to think through the hullabaloo. _Fiercer, stronger._ In his mind's eye the picture of a grey wolf formed, and then he felt the change take place.**

**The raw instincts of the great canine were too powerful for Gar to grasp, and he attacked with all the strength and fury of a wild beast. He managed to sink his fangs into Rex's left arm and tear a gigantic hunk out of the shoulder, cracking the bone and exposing the marrow. But then Mac caught the green creature by the neck and squeezed tight, breaking Garfield's intense concentration.**

**The child struggled to breath, but his futile attempts only caused the stronger man constrict his steel grasp even more. Gradually, the world around him began to grow darker. Then, in the couple of seconds before he blacked out, Gar heard three words: "Doom Patrol, advance!"**

------

"And that's how I met the Doom Patrol", Beast Boy finished. "And you know the rest."

"No, we don't", Jinx said coolly, crossing her arms across her chest. "That's what we want to know."

Beast Boy sighed, "Fine, fine". He pasted a playful scowl on his green face. "Here's what happened during the time I lived with Steve, Rita, Larry, and Cliff."


	4. Chapter 4

I've enjoyed writing this tale so far. It's given me something to do these boring school days. (Blah, blah, blah) Here's the fourth chapter.

&&&&

Chapter Four: Ice Cream 'N Cookies

"I was taken in pretty quickly by everyone but Mento. He was a very suspicious man." Beast Boy shook his head. "But the others were okay. They were almost like a real family."

"I always thought of Rita as the mom, 'cause even Steve—Mento—listened to her." The green teen smirked. "Steve was the military dad, and I do mean military. You know how Robin likes to work us for hours each." Everyone but the team leader grinned and nodded. "Well, Mento was a lot worse; a whole lot worse. Whenever there was a crime-free moment, he would make us train. From dodging missiles, to running through the maze, it was one exercise and then another." Jinx and Starfire stared at him in disbelief. Cyborg dropped his metal cranium on the table in shock, causing the candles to flicker briefly. Robin had a look of admiration in his masked eyes, while Raven showed no emotion at all, which was normal for her.

"The last two, Larry and Cliff—Negative Man and Robot Man—, were more like brothers than uncles. Cliff was the stronger one you went to for a game of football. While Larry was the smarter one who you went to if you had a question. And I had a LOT of questions."

"It was hard during those first couple weeks. I still didn't understand a lot of the English language, so I had to spend every moment relearning to read and write and talk." Cyborg cracked up.

"No wonder you don't like to read!" the metal-man hybrid laughed. "You can't!"

"I can too!" Beast Boy argued angrily. Then in a more composed tone, he added "It's just different from reading in African."

"Now, where was I?" He paused for dramatic effect. "Oh yah, I was telling you guys about all my questions."

"What kind of questions could you possibly have?" Robin interrupted. "I mean, what could you NOT understand?"

"If you'd listen instead of barging in on the middle of my story, you'd find out." Robin coughed in a futile attempt to veil the embarrassed look that could be seen despite the mask that concealed his eyes and most of his upper face.

"Well…okay, maybe it'd be easier if I gave you an example first." Beast Boy hesitated before deciding how to carry on. "Okay, here's a good one. It was one of the few days without any crime, but it was also too hot to train—glorious summer days. Everybody was just lounging about the dining-slash-living room. Then Cliff went into the kitchen for a snack. I was thinking he'd come out with yet another of his never-ending supply of fish sandwiches, but instead he had a blue, plastic package in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other."

"After a while, curiosity took over and I went over to him. I asked him what was in the package." Beast Boy had his head in his hands and was grinning sheepishly. "He said they were cookies, and I asked him what cookies were." The whole table was in hysterics.

"You—" Cyborg tried to catch his breath. "You didn't know what _cookies_ were?" Beast Boy shook his head, unable to speak because of his laughter. "That's… that's hilarious!"

"It gets better! He gave me one to try, and I thought it was a type of sandwich." The changeling's normally green face was now a bright scarlet.

------

**Garfield moved to take a bite of the strange, black disc.**

**"Not that way, shrimp." Cliff stopped the little seven-year-old, and took another Oreo cookie out for himself. "First you twist the top off, kind'a like popping off a lid." He gently twisted the two halves of the cookie different ways, and they came apart easily. Garfield did the same and received the exact same results—to the boy's utter amazement.**

**"Then you lick off the cream." Cliff saw the confusion on the green child's face, so he rephrased his instruction. "It's the white stuff."**

**"Ohhh" Gar voiced as he finally understood.**

**"I personally like to scrape it off with my teeth." Garfield mimicked the robot-man's actions. Cliff watched—a slight smile playing about his lips—as the green boy savored the sugary taste of the "white stuff".**

**"Sweet", Gar concluded at last. "And yummy!" and he reached for another cookie.**

------

"I became addicted to the stuff" Beast Boy laughed. "And I never would eat the cookie itself, just the cream." No one could stop giggling.

Jinx managed to control herself long enough to submit a question. "So, you'd never had a cookie before that?" Beast Boy shook his head. "I mean, not even some home baked ones?"

"Nope, usually, my mom was too busy for sweets. But when she wasn't, she took me with her to the savanna. There we'd find sugarcane." His contented smile was accompanied by a distant gaze. "I remember sucking on one of them the whole trip back. Usually, the journey'd take all day, so Mom would take a day off about once a month just for the 'Sweet Day', what I called it."

"If you never tasted cookies before" Raven pondered aloud to Beast Boy. "I'll bet you'd never had a couple of other things."

"You're right" he nodded to her. "I guess I was a lot like Starfire back then, but I'll only tell you a few of the stuff I tried."

"Like the day that was Larry's birthday. Rita was bustling around the kitchen getting things ready when I heard her say 'Cliff, I need you to go down to the store for a tub of chocolate ice cream."

"You never had ICE CREAM before!" Robin practically shouted.

"Nope."

------

**Garfield stood in the kitchen doorway, watching Rita and Cliff rush around. _What's a birthday_, he wondered to himself. _What's an ice cream?_ He tried to get Cliff's attention to ask him, but Robot Man was much taller than Gar to take notice of him. And Rita was too busy. So he walked down the corridor to the study. _Should I disturb him? What if he's in the middle of something important?_**

**None-the-less, Garfield cautiously knocked three times on the great, steel door of Mento's study. "What do you want?" The voice of his adoptive father burst through the steel.**

**The boy drew in a gulp of air and gathered his courage. "I have question." It was a strange statement to hear, and was made all the more strange because Garfield's voice was still deeply accented from living in Africa.**

**The door slid open to reveal the imposing stature of Steve Dayton. "And what question would that be, Garfield?" he asked with his steely gaze.**

**"What is 'birthday'?"**

**"Um." Clearly the Patrol leader was flustered with this seemingly innocent question. Then he appeared to collect himself. "It's a celebration that marks the day you were born on."**

**Gar considered this for a nanosecond before asking: "Do I have birthday?"**

**Steve gave one of his rare smiles. "Of course you do, everyone does. I want t be left alone for a while now." He shut the door.**

**"But" the child said, finding himself speaking to a metal door. "I have more question."**

**Garfield wandered into the living room and found Negative Man there, reading a thick novel. "Larry?" The bandaged-wrapped man looked up.**

**"Yah, squirt?"**

**"What ice cream?"**

**"Well, it's a sweet substance made of sugar, salt…" Larry trailed off into silence as he observed Garfield. "How 'bout I show you? Wouldn't that be better than an explanation?"**

**"Yes, yes! Please show me 'ice cream'!" Gar exclaimed excitedly.**

**He followed Larry as they walked out of the Doom Patrol Headquarters and onto the street. Larry led the green kid down a couple blocks to the park. There, on the very edge, was a small cart.**

**"That's an ice cream cart," the mummy-like man spoke as he pointed it out to Garfield. "It sells ice cream cones and sundaes. C'mon, I'll buy you a cone."**

**Larry walked confidently over to the cart, followed by the not-so-confident young shapeshifter.**

**"What'll it be?" the man at the counter said to Negative Man.**

**"Two cones", Larry responded. "Chocolate flavor if you have it."**

**"Chocolate" Garfield whispered as the man disappeared to the back of his cart. "Like the bars Cliff eats?"**

**Larry chuckled and nodded. Then the man returned with two cones topped with a couple of dark brown scoops on each. Larry paid the man, and handed Gar's cone to him. "C'mon, let's go back. Rita'll be looking for us if we're gone too long."**

**Garfield nodded then took a big bite out of the top of the cone in his hand. And immediately spit it out on the ground. "It's cold!"**

**Larry laughed at the sour face on the kid's face. "That's why it's called 'ice' cream. It's frozen cream. Get it?"**

**Gar nodded and took a cautious lick.**

------

There was so much laughter by now that the table was shaking. "You were worse than Starfire!" Robin managed to gasp between gales of giggles.

"Yah" Jinx agreed with the Boy Wonder. "About TEN times worse!"

"Would you like to hear another?" Beast Boy giggled.

"If I laugh any more I think I'll explode!" Cyborg was practically ready to fall out of his chair.

"I suspect everyone has eaten cotton candy before" the changeling went on.

"Oh my God!" Robin was near tears, he was laughing so hard. "I forgot all about cotton candy!"

"I thought you were allergic to cotton candy," Jinx remarked, obviously puzzled.

"Yep, one day Rita came back from a fair with this big bag of some really flossy stuff. She'd gotten it for—believe it or not—Steve!" All the green teen's friends stared at him in amazement. "He served us all some. And—" Beast Boy had to break off there because of his mirth. "And I had a sugar high for the rest of the day. In fact, Rita had to give me a tranquilizer just to get me to go to sleep!" The hysterics reached the peak of the extensive night at that comment.

"And that's why I say I have a bad reaction to cotton candy." He calmed down a bit. "Cliff said it was because my biology is so different from a normal human's that I couldn't handle that much sugar all at once. So I guess I kind'a am, in a way, allergic to cotton candy."

Just as those last words left his mouth, the lights came back on and a message popped onto the computer: _Restarting system, please wait..._ Everyone sighed in relief.

"Who feels like going to bed?" Robin questioned joyfully.

"I", "I", "Me too", "I as well", "I'm going to bed", rang out the various responses as the team stood up and headed towards their rooms to get the last hours of sleep before morning came.

Raven and Beast Boy turned down the hallway that led to their rooms. Raven turned to him halfway down the hall. "How did you handle it?" she demanded.

"What?" he said flabbergasted.

"How did you handle a life like that?"

The green fourteen-year-old just shrugged as he responded. "I know I didn't exactly have the perfect life, and I made a lot of mistakes. And I mean a LOT of 'em." Beast Boy tilted his head sideways, so he was looking at the Goth beauty through one eye. "But the point is, I was challenged throughout my entire life, and I met all of them successfully." He then left her with a smile and strode off to his room.

_I never did have him pegged as a philosopher._ Raven thought to herself as she entered her own room.

&&&&

There you go. Not long, I know, but I couldn't think of a better ending.

I think it's gonna be a while 'till I think up another more-than-one chapter story.

May you have good writings and reviews (HINT, HINT), cheers.

JadeAshes


End file.
